Sebastien Ogier held off a charging Ott Tanak to claim his fourth successive victory on Rally GB, joining Hannu Mikkola and Petter Solberg as the equal-most successful driver in event history.

Ogier led the rally from the opening stage and was able to protect his lead on the final day to secure a first win on gravel this term, with victory also confirming a fourth manufacturers' crown for his Volkswagen team.

World champion Ogier headed into the final three stages of the event with a 25.9-second lead over Tanak, having dropped time in each of the three stages that comprised Sunday's early morning loop.

But despite losing a second per mile to Tanak's Ford Fiesta RS in the second run through Alwen, Ogier still had 16.4s in his pocket heading into the Power Stage at Brenig.

He took that stage steadily, coming through the finish 6.2s slower than Tanak to win by 10.2s.

Second was still an impressive performance from Tanak, who made full use of the DMACK tire's prowess in low-grip conditions to match his best result of the year in Poland.

The Estonian's first Powerstage win also ensured that he took a clean sweep of all six stages on Sunday.

The intra-team battle for third between the Hyundai i20s of Thierry Neuville and Hayden Paddon was decided in favor of Belgian Neuville for the second rally in a row, and elevates Neuville to second in the points after Andreas Mikkelsen was ruled out of contention by differential problems on Friday.

The Norwegian beat Neuville to second on the Powerstage, but could only recover to 12th in the final classification and is now 14 points shy of his rival in the fight for runner-up spot in the championship.

Counting the cost of a lowly starting position, Kris Meeke endured a frustrating home rally.

On his final outing of the season – and the last for the current generation Citroen DS3 – the Northern Irishman finished a disappointed fifth, a lack of grip preventing him from challenging the two Hyundais.

The third i20 of Dani Sordo cruised to the finish in sixth, with Volkswagen's Jari-Matti Latvala too far back to challenge after he was hit by the same problem as Mikkelsen.

The Finn extended his gap to Mads Ostberg in the final loop, but could make no inroads into Sordo's advantage.

Stephane Lefebvre made his first WRC appearance since his horror accident with a Hinkelstein in Germany, finishing a trouble-free ninth on what is not his preferred surface, with M-Sport's Eric Camilli rounding out the top 10 in his Fiesta RS.